Broadway Watch - Sweeney Todd
Fri, 4 Nov 2005, 01:11 pmWalter Plinge1 post in thread
Broadway Watch - Sweeney Todd
Fri, 4 Nov 2005, 01:11 pmSweeney Todd
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
Directed by John Doyle
Opened 3rd November 2005
[On a personal note, a friend saw this production in the UK before it hit the West End, and LOVED it! He's not a Sondheim fan, and didn't know the show before he went in]
Extracts from various reviewers:
“John Doyle's production of the Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler masterwork is the baldest example yet of a musical revival that doesn't give a damn about its audience… not in recent memory has a production so intentionally alienated itself from all but the staunchest devotees.”
“This is the Sweeney Todd for people who don't need to be convinced to like Sweeney Todd; it's not preaching to the choir, it's preaching to other priests. So abandon hope all ye who enter the Eugene O'Neill without having memorized every lyric of Sondheim's songs and every line of Wheeler's libretto. Even then you'll need an iron grip on your encyclopedic knowledge of the story to follow the action as Doyle prescribes it: He does everything possible to disconnect the stage action from what's being talked and sung about.”
“It looks like everything is supposed to take place in the mind of one prisoner (who begins the show in a straitjacket), but why he'd picture his own surroundings instead of somewhere different is anyone's guess.”
“Nor can I justify his requirement that each member of this 10-person cast play his or her own musical instrument. Perhaps, in the low-budget world of offbeat English theatre, such a choice simply allows a Sweeney Todd to appear where it might not otherwise materialize.”
“But Broadway shows - especially those, like this one, with a $101.25 top ticket price - should have higher standards.”
“The performers do as well as any could under the circumstances… The less said the better about Donna Lynne Champlin, who absurdly plays the male barber Pirelli as an androgynous, nightmarish understudy Emcee from a reform-school production of Cabaret.”
“Michael Cerveris shatters expectations as Sweeney, bringing more weight to the role than one would have thought possible… Cerveris's complete performance is as good as anything here can possibly be.”
“Finally, there's Patti LuPone. The good news is, you can understand 98% of what she sings (an excellent percentage for her). The bad news is that she's hardly allowed to be Mrs. Lovett. Looking like a Goth waitress from a lesbian biker bar, she's denied nearly every opportunity to sink her teeth into the role's comedy”
“…at least LuPone's comic oom-pahing provides some temporarily increased musical depth. It's a nice break from what is otherwise elevator music at best, though it's not enough to make this onetime musical thriller into something not-so-thrillingly Muzakal.”
Talkin’ Broadway – Matthew Murray
“Memorize this name: John Doyle. Now repeat it as a mantra while hurrying quick as the flash of a blade to the box-office of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where Doyle's production of the brilliant Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical Sweeney Todd is on view.”
“How jaw-droppingly impressive is the 52-year-old Broadway newcomer's thorough re-thinking of the acclaimed piece? … director-designer Doyle has brought out every detail of it as if it were a drop of freshly spilled blood on a clean, white laboratory coat.”
“The 10 players he's chosen for the Broadway Sweeney are triple-threat artistes. They are (for the most part) well-trained on their instruments and are therefore prepared to do right by Susan Travis's economically eerie orchestrations.”
“Cerveris is both an accomplished guitarist and an accomplished Sweeney -- tightly wound, glowering, raising his razors triumphantly high. LuPone, who's acquainted herself with Mrs. Lovett in previous concert appearances, is a no-nonsense pie-woman dispensing her wares and clipping her consonants with aplomb. Perhaps the high point of the show is the Cerveris-Lupone challenge match in Sondheim's superlative "A Little Priest."”
“As to the supporting cast: Donna Lynne Champlin, in a top hat that's passed around throughout the proceedings, is hilarious as an accordion-squeezing and flute-wielding Pirelli.”
“…Doyle does what he does better than anyone else could possibly have done it, and has created one of Broadway's all-time best shows in the process. By all means, attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.”
Theater Mania – David Finkle
“As sharp and glistening as a straight-edge razor, director John Doyle's stripped-down concert/theater rendition of Sweeney Todd gives the kind of buzz you don't expect, and certainly almost never get, from a Broadway show. It is the distinct hum of musical and theatrical intelligence; it is the glow of sheer brilliance as an entertainment value in itself.”
“… Doyle's abstract, poor-theater staging only italicizes the show's unforgiving gallows humor. But somehow the artistry of this Sweeney lifts the spirits.”
“There's a matter-of-fact seamlessness to the concept that saves it from gimmicky.”
“…it must be noted that in the title role, Michael Cerveris is slightly off the mark. Looking like a mod Nosferatu in his thin black tie, leather jacket, and trademark shorn pate, Cerveris is appropriately chilling and pathetic, and he does bring a few unique assets to the role.”
“…LuPone's tarty, lovable Mrs. Lovett. In a black Louise Brooks wig and seedy baby-doll dress and stockings, LuPone relaxes into this witchily sympathetic role with supreme confidence. She doesn't push or prod a single moment, nor does she oversell either Mrs. Lovett's craven, amoral practicality or her sweeter, dafter romantic side. Whether she's cleaning the tools of her dismembering trade or draining spit from her tuba, LuPone gives us a wonderfully undespairing anti-heroine.”
“Mimed without props and sung without a single pop wail, "A Little Priest" brings down the house on the strength of its lyrics, delivered with lip-smacking relish by the leads. Forget the sight of LuPone playing the tuba for a second: How often do we see sheer wit stop the show on Broadway?”
“…I've never seen Beggar Woman as winningly pitiful as Diana DiMarzio's shuffling, clarinet-playing specimen.”
“I'm no box-office prophet; I have no idea whether this Sweeney will be a hit beyond the Sondheim cult. It certainly deserves to catch on with the sort of New Yorkers who feel too cool to go to Broadway shows. But the tourists and tired businessmen? They may not get the entertainment they're looking for here, but what they do get—essentially, the best bleak, funny Gothic chamber musical ever—they're never going to forget.”
Broadway.Com – Rob Kendt
Next Broadway Musical opening – Jersey Boys – 6th November
Other news: “The Pirate Queen” the new Schonberg/Boublil musical about GraceO’Malley is to hit Broadway in early 2007!
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
Directed by John Doyle
Opened 3rd November 2005
[On a personal note, a friend saw this production in the UK before it hit the West End, and LOVED it! He's not a Sondheim fan, and didn't know the show before he went in]
Extracts from various reviewers:
“John Doyle's production of the Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler masterwork is the baldest example yet of a musical revival that doesn't give a damn about its audience… not in recent memory has a production so intentionally alienated itself from all but the staunchest devotees.”
“This is the Sweeney Todd for people who don't need to be convinced to like Sweeney Todd; it's not preaching to the choir, it's preaching to other priests. So abandon hope all ye who enter the Eugene O'Neill without having memorized every lyric of Sondheim's songs and every line of Wheeler's libretto. Even then you'll need an iron grip on your encyclopedic knowledge of the story to follow the action as Doyle prescribes it: He does everything possible to disconnect the stage action from what's being talked and sung about.”
“It looks like everything is supposed to take place in the mind of one prisoner (who begins the show in a straitjacket), but why he'd picture his own surroundings instead of somewhere different is anyone's guess.”
“Nor can I justify his requirement that each member of this 10-person cast play his or her own musical instrument. Perhaps, in the low-budget world of offbeat English theatre, such a choice simply allows a Sweeney Todd to appear where it might not otherwise materialize.”
“But Broadway shows - especially those, like this one, with a $101.25 top ticket price - should have higher standards.”
“The performers do as well as any could under the circumstances… The less said the better about Donna Lynne Champlin, who absurdly plays the male barber Pirelli as an androgynous, nightmarish understudy Emcee from a reform-school production of Cabaret.”
“Michael Cerveris shatters expectations as Sweeney, bringing more weight to the role than one would have thought possible… Cerveris's complete performance is as good as anything here can possibly be.”
“Finally, there's Patti LuPone. The good news is, you can understand 98% of what she sings (an excellent percentage for her). The bad news is that she's hardly allowed to be Mrs. Lovett. Looking like a Goth waitress from a lesbian biker bar, she's denied nearly every opportunity to sink her teeth into the role's comedy”
“…at least LuPone's comic oom-pahing provides some temporarily increased musical depth. It's a nice break from what is otherwise elevator music at best, though it's not enough to make this onetime musical thriller into something not-so-thrillingly Muzakal.”
Talkin’ Broadway – Matthew Murray
“Memorize this name: John Doyle. Now repeat it as a mantra while hurrying quick as the flash of a blade to the box-office of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where Doyle's production of the brilliant Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical Sweeney Todd is on view.”
“How jaw-droppingly impressive is the 52-year-old Broadway newcomer's thorough re-thinking of the acclaimed piece? … director-designer Doyle has brought out every detail of it as if it were a drop of freshly spilled blood on a clean, white laboratory coat.”
“The 10 players he's chosen for the Broadway Sweeney are triple-threat artistes. They are (for the most part) well-trained on their instruments and are therefore prepared to do right by Susan Travis's economically eerie orchestrations.”
“Cerveris is both an accomplished guitarist and an accomplished Sweeney -- tightly wound, glowering, raising his razors triumphantly high. LuPone, who's acquainted herself with Mrs. Lovett in previous concert appearances, is a no-nonsense pie-woman dispensing her wares and clipping her consonants with aplomb. Perhaps the high point of the show is the Cerveris-Lupone challenge match in Sondheim's superlative "A Little Priest."”
“As to the supporting cast: Donna Lynne Champlin, in a top hat that's passed around throughout the proceedings, is hilarious as an accordion-squeezing and flute-wielding Pirelli.”
“…Doyle does what he does better than anyone else could possibly have done it, and has created one of Broadway's all-time best shows in the process. By all means, attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.”
Theater Mania – David Finkle
“As sharp and glistening as a straight-edge razor, director John Doyle's stripped-down concert/theater rendition of Sweeney Todd gives the kind of buzz you don't expect, and certainly almost never get, from a Broadway show. It is the distinct hum of musical and theatrical intelligence; it is the glow of sheer brilliance as an entertainment value in itself.”
“… Doyle's abstract, poor-theater staging only italicizes the show's unforgiving gallows humor. But somehow the artistry of this Sweeney lifts the spirits.”
“There's a matter-of-fact seamlessness to the concept that saves it from gimmicky.”
“…it must be noted that in the title role, Michael Cerveris is slightly off the mark. Looking like a mod Nosferatu in his thin black tie, leather jacket, and trademark shorn pate, Cerveris is appropriately chilling and pathetic, and he does bring a few unique assets to the role.”
“…LuPone's tarty, lovable Mrs. Lovett. In a black Louise Brooks wig and seedy baby-doll dress and stockings, LuPone relaxes into this witchily sympathetic role with supreme confidence. She doesn't push or prod a single moment, nor does she oversell either Mrs. Lovett's craven, amoral practicality or her sweeter, dafter romantic side. Whether she's cleaning the tools of her dismembering trade or draining spit from her tuba, LuPone gives us a wonderfully undespairing anti-heroine.”
“Mimed without props and sung without a single pop wail, "A Little Priest" brings down the house on the strength of its lyrics, delivered with lip-smacking relish by the leads. Forget the sight of LuPone playing the tuba for a second: How often do we see sheer wit stop the show on Broadway?”
“…I've never seen Beggar Woman as winningly pitiful as Diana DiMarzio's shuffling, clarinet-playing specimen.”
“I'm no box-office prophet; I have no idea whether this Sweeney will be a hit beyond the Sondheim cult. It certainly deserves to catch on with the sort of New Yorkers who feel too cool to go to Broadway shows. But the tourists and tired businessmen? They may not get the entertainment they're looking for here, but what they do get—essentially, the best bleak, funny Gothic chamber musical ever—they're never going to forget.”
Broadway.Com – Rob Kendt
Next Broadway Musical opening – Jersey Boys – 6th November
Other news: “The Pirate Queen” the new Schonberg/Boublil musical about GraceO’Malley is to hit Broadway in early 2007!